NOVEL NEXT Chapter 204: Contact
<+=/ Jenna \\=+>
A memory of the final pre-mission brief was still vivid in her mind as Jenna stepped foot through the narrow gap, and out into the mine.
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Hirvonen had briefed a room set deep with chairs - the scouts and forces involved in the operation, as well as higher-ups in their combined armed forces that would not be taking part in the assault. He pointed to a slab of rock shaped to be a top-down, 3d model of the mine. It contained more intricate detail than Jenna had ever seen during a briefing. Scouts and magic really were a game-changer for intelligence gathering and dissemination.
"This is our operational area. An open pit mine, stepped in rings as it rises. You'll notice the width of each flat area here is wider at the bottom than at the top. That's an effect of the mining equipment in play. Heavy machinery is in active use, and will be making noise. Each of these machines can range from the size of a refrigeration unit, to larger than a house. With each, expect to see some transport carts, either mundane or airborne. At every 3rd level of the steps in the mine, there's a mixed-use building that seems to provide food and other worker accommodations. All of these are soft targets. They may help our operation, but they are not our focus."
Hirvonen gestured to his side, and cloth was pulled away from a few large models.
"These are our hard targets. If we fail to take these, we fail to take the mine. Number one, the digger. Don't let the sawblade-looking piece here on the front fool you, each of those teeth are buckets for moving dirt, and you could park a traincar in each one." A whistle sounded somewhere behind Jenna. Hirv pointed. "Exactly - and something that large requires an equally large crew. Combatants and noncombatants on this one. Think of the digger as a semi mobile base - with some potential for offensive moves. We get control of that bucket wheel, we can use it to deal some damage. Second, we have the sifter. It's a building, larger than the others, that gets most of the unprocessed dirt. From what we can tell, it spits out crystals on one line, and massively compressed dirt and rock from the other. This thing acts like the main transport hub for the entire lower mine. Expect high numbers of floating transports, and enemies. Getting this position is absolutely key. With access to the crystals there, well - most of you know what that opens up for us."
He gave Lycra a nod, and murmurs drifted in from the gathered crowd.
"Alright, settle down. Third target is the overlook. From what we can tell, this one acts as a troop barracks and off duty quarters for the workers. More than twice the size of the sifter, expect it to have personnel to match. We also expect this acts as their ops center. You may see a few of our people break away during the battle to head in this direction. Don't stop them. They have their orders, and you have yours. Alright. Last hard target is set a short run outside the mine. This is the shuttle dock. If you manage to take it while craft are parked there, great. If you have to break everything over there, also fine. But we cannot leave them a space to reinforce from, or to evacuate more of our planet's resources."
As Hirvonen walked back towards the 3d map, a rust-colored ridge rose up from its surface.
"This is your path of travel. Head point to point, use machinery as cover if needed, but otherwise stick close to the step walls. They're high enough to prevent firing vectors from the upper levels, as long as you're not surrounded. We enter from the southeast, hug the walls and hope we can stay undiscovered all the way to the digger. Take the digger, then up the switchbacks to the East until we get to the sifter's level. We'll move to the Northeast to hit the sifter, then break into groups depending on whether we commandeer any of the floating carts. Squad leaders have a more detailed breakdown they'll take you through once we're done here. But before that, let's go open floor. I want questions, and I want concerns. Anything that comes to mind. This is how we stop mistakes and fix oversights, people. It's how we keep each other safe. Good! A hand already. What've you got...."
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Jenna blinked away the sunspots in her vision, and slightly stumbled on the uneven ground. She pressed forward despite the partial blindness and her struggle to find good footing. She was only the third of many that needed to make it through the opening and out to the mine, and each misstep wasted precious seconds for everyone behind her. Rifle in hand, she slowly moved forward until her vision fully cleared. To either side, massive walls of dirt and stone rose up and stretched out, imperfect and messy in ways her eyes seemed to want to gloss over. Behind her, their entrypoint was just another nondescript indent in the wall's face, and would've been easy to miss if not for the stream of Vuxarinan fighters making their way through.
In the distance, the massive metal frame of the digger loomed. Its wheel let out a near-continuous scraping noise as it ripped through and harvested large scoops of dirt and crystal. Each scoop was carried on conveyor belts back towards the center of the digger, where another belt was positioned up towards the sifter. The mine was active. Carts moved between their hard targets and many of the soft points in slow traversals that wouldn't upset their dirt and crystal loads. Most she could see were in mining uniforms - or were at least the color of mining uniforms. The space was vast, and everything in the distance was too far for her to make proper distinctions.
It wouldn't stay distant for long.
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Back pressed to the earthen wall, rifle in hand, Jenna watched for any sign that their group had been spotted. There was none. Soon enough, they had their entire attacking force set along the walls, and Hirvonen - who had been traveling towards the rear of the group - emerged. He gave a series of hand signals to the designated squad leaders, and over 150 pairs of legs broke into a jog. The noise of the boots hitting rock and stone was drowned out completely by the heavy machinery overhead. More importantly, it seemed like no one was looking down.
Minutes into their jog, Jenna - and others - started to notice something was amiss. As they drew closer, they could see the digger wasn't moving as much as it should have been. The machine was very obviously not processing as much rock out of the ground as it should've been capable of. Which meant only a trickle of material was getting sent up to the sifter - but the flat transport craft were still coming and going rapidly, working hard to remove as much crystal as they could manage. Hirvonen was the first to put the pieces together. The weathered man caught up to Jenna, Lycra, and their third with the majority of the squad leaders in tow. He spoke in hushed whispers that barely penetrated the din of the mine.
"They look like they're expecting an assault - they just don't know where it's coming from," he swept a steel gaze over the group. "We need to make a decision, and I want it unanimous. Either we push forward into a potentially bigger fight, or we call it here and rework the plan."
One by one, the Vuxarinans around them confirmed their willingness to push on, and so they did. They continued to the point where the walls would no longer provide them any cover, and beyond. To the first great risk of this operation - an open run. The group shifted, squads formed into a flower-like shape around Jenna's trio towards the center. They could see things more clearly now, and closed in with every step. Close enough to see many of the workers were carrying tool cases, when they shouldn't be. Close enough to see their work uniforms were tight on odd frames.
Close enough that, when one of the workers on an exterior walkway fell whilst trying to go up a ladder, she caught the glint of burgundy armor underneath their shifted uniform. The disguised Belar guard rolled sideways to get back up - which brought them in direct line of sight with Jenna's group. They were still for a long moment, then started to scramble to get back on their feet.
Jenna swore and dropped her rifle to her side, then grabbed the railgun from her back in a single swift motion. Her momentum halted as she dropped to a knee and set a round into the weapon. Squads parted around her and left a cone of open space ahead of her without a word. The railgun's stock tucked tight against her shoulder, and she squeezed the trigger in practiced motion, timing her breath and steadying herself with every moment.
It was too early for discovery - especially if the enemy knew something was going to happen. Especially if they were ready with guards in armor. Jenna focused hard. She worked from that warm, smooth sensation her skill always brought to the fore, and concentrated on forcing more out of herself. More precision. More clarity. Enough to make this work.
Far ahead, the burgundy-armored form was back to their knees. The railgun kicked, and the round launched away at high velocity. She kept her eyes forward and loaded another round with practiced fluidity. Even with its speed, the round didn't reach her target immediately. The form had enough time to rise to their full height and put one hand back on the ladder.
Just as she'd hoped.
The metallic slug turned the soldier's head into a fine mist - then continued into the digger. The 'BONG' of metal on metal sounded out, almost louder than the bucket wheel's continuous grind. Still, Jenna smiled. Their options were to have someone on the digger screaming about exactly where they were, or to have people on the digger scrambling to figure out what was going on. The latter bought them precious seconds.
Jenna stood and sprinted forward, her eyes glued to the side of the digger and the four levels of catwalks that faced their approach. Near the top of the massive machine, there were a series of darkened windows she couldn't see through. She hoped no one was searching for them there.
A pair of Belar guards in their burgundy armor - without mining uniforms - emerged from a door in the digger two levels above the dead man. She dragged a heel and dropped to a knee, pausing only long enough to let her body's momentum settle before the squeezed the trigger. As soon as the shot was away, she was on her feet again. The round slammed into the first guard near the chest. It mangled the man's metal armor and turned the body inside to high-pressurized liquid that evacuated the suit a moment later. Shrapnel and gore flew out from the dead man's body as it was flung back into the second guard. Jenna tried to steady her breathing. She brought another round up to the railgun and loaded it, then paused while still standing to fire. The shot liquified the second guard's shoulder as it tore through his metal armor and knocked him back down to the ground. He was probably dead.
Each shot had put her further and further back in their group, and Jenna needed to stick within their mass more than she needed accuracy, now. The head of their formation was nearly in rifle range, anyway. She still put another slug into the railgun and held it ready. Breaths came heavy as she sprinted through her fellow running Vuxarinans to make it back to where Lycra was near the center of the formation. He had his backpack slung backwards so he could pull items directly from its overloaded pockets - and was holding a crystal in each hand. Next to him, the final member of their trio for this fight was splitting attention between Lycra and the advance.
They were close now. The front of the group was nearly to the rise and the base of the digger, and the earth mages at the front of their formation were molding the ground into a series of ramps for their group to climb. And that was when the entire mine seemed to explode into motion.
Rifle fire erupted from multiple points around and above them. Previously hidden teams on the arm of the digger stepped out from behind its thick metal frame and rained down mundane and magical attacks. Their group responded with returned fire and hastily erected defenses - but they were useless. Their enemy had the high ground, and it left their entire force exposed. The advance slowed to a crawl in an instant.
Jenna lifted the railgun and liquified one of the enemies firing at them from the digger. The rest of the elevated enemies took that as an invitation to concentrate fire on her position - right next to Lycra. As the bright projectiles lanced forward, Lycra tossed an intricately carved crystal to the third member of their squad with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. His order was equal parts hurried concern, and barely contained excitement.
"Do it now!"